Roman fresco with banquet scene from the Casa dei Casti Amanti (IX 12, 6-8) in Pompeii

In western society we are inheritors of a legacy from Ancient Greece and Rome that despite the passing of over 2500 years is still potent. Through their ideas the desire to capture the essence of fine living was born. Today that art of living has evolved since the development of the domus in European antiquity to a residence in America and Australia, through a diverse and special mix of peoples and their cultures.

Ancient Greek gastronomy developed out of a practice of sacrificing domestic animals to a variety of gods. Afterwards, as one would expect in a democracy, the carcasses were equally proportioned and sold at market. During the fifth century before the Christ event herbs, spices and honey were added to heighten taste.

As documented in the literature of this period, cookery was considered a very important skill, because the Greeks understood it to be one of the basic arts that sustained human life. Romans of the first century embraced Greek ideas and art forms with great passion. Roman orator Cicero [106 BC -43 BC] believed that ‘to style the presence of guests at a dinner table’ lay at the heart of Roman civilised life ‘because it implied a community of enjoyment, a convivium, or ‘living together’.

Reconstruction of the Octagonal Room - Emperor Nero's Domus Aurea

Following the decline of the Republic and ascent of the Empirical system at Rome a shared meal became a vehicle for display, ostentation, rank, hierarchy and for flattering and influencing people, in a setting they could exercise the art of conversation. Roman Emperor Nero (37-68) enjoyed fine living with great gusto. When he entered his just completed residence, the Domus Aurea (or Golden House, built in 64 AD, he is said to have proclaimed, as he gazed upon its many splendours, words to the effect, ‘now at last I can live as a human being’.

Author of a first century best seller Satyricon, Gaius Petronius (27-66 A.D.), was Nero’s advisor in all matters of luxury and extravagance (his unofficial title was arbiter elegantia). He described guests arriving at a banquet as being requested to remove their shoes at the door, have their hands washed in iced water, no mean feat prior to refrigeration, while their toenails were trimmed to the sounds of a chorus singing. Perhaps today we may consider the last just a little excessive.

We do know that Nero’s guests reclined, along with their host, on couches enjoying conversation and cuisine prepared by chefs, who achieved some fame. His vast banqueting hall revolved in harmony with the rhythms of day and night, the ceiling opening to reveal the heavens as perfume and gifts showered onto guests.

The advent of Christianity created a challenge for those at the top because by now there was a well-established tradition of fine living throughout the Roman world.

The Apostle Paul struggled to attend gatherings where rich men and their friends were served different food and drink to those of a ‘lower status’. It was a dilemma he felt he could not resolve so in the end he decided the wealthy had better eat privately.

Paul advised the Corinthians [1 Corinthians 8: 9, 10] when asked should they eat meat sacrificed to idols by suggesting they should be careful about exercising freedom of choice in case it became a ‘stumbling block to the weak’. And, that if what he ate caused his brothers to fall into sin then for his part, he would never eat meat again. Powerful words with a meditative deep inner meaning that reflect Paul’s strength of mind and purpose.

There is a huge gap of reliable documentation from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, when the demise of eating in a reclining position also came about, until about the fourteenth century in Europe. Communal living by Christian monks and nuns meant communal eating, often to strict rules of silence, with an aim of feeding the soul.

Prolonged periods of peace also meant the aristocracy gentry and merchants could establish great houses in the countryside and along with it invented the concept of ‘eating outdoors’ or, having picnics, which became something new and exciting as described by fourteenth century French nobleman Gaston Phoebus Gaston III of Foix and Gaston X of Béarn (1343-1391).

He summarized his life’s achievements: “I have delighted all my days in three things. The one is arms, the next is love, and the other is hunting.” He added, “There have been far better masters of the two former than I am.” Such humility, is definitely to be applauded.

For Kings and noblemen of the fourteenth century hunting was so much more than just a sport. It was a game of chance in which the thrill of the chase was far more important than the desire to put food on the table.

An artful aristocratic diversion, the hunt ended with man proving he held power and sway over the animal kingdom. A complex event involving strategizing for success with highly valued, well trained dogs and fighting fit falcons hunts were often held on religious days.

They started with a feast for breakfast, as well as an analysis of the droppings of the potential prey to ensure it was both fit and worthy to be hunted at all. Then the hunt was on. The glorious day ended with everyone joining together in a celebratory meal and fittingly Phoebus himself died, as he should, during a bear hunt.

Fifteenth century Florentine author and philosopher Marsilio Ficino 1433 – 1499 revealed his thoughts about a meal that it ‘embraces all the parts of man, for it restores the limbs, renews the humours, revives the mind, refreshes the senses and sustains and sharpens reason’.

Throughout the fifteenth century in Italy dining at table was strongly symbolic of a good society one in which strong social relationships were forged, ideas exchanged and mutual respect established.

In England by the sixteenth century the head of a powerful household sat at the head of his table facing a fanciful portal crowned with trumpeters who heralded the exact moment the food, led by the marshal of the hall carrying a white staff appeared.

At the grandest banquets, a household officer on horseback emerged from underneath a screen that protected guests from draughts from the doorway and rode into the hall to announce that dinner was served. What fun.

At Hatfield House, home of the famous Cecil family, the ornately carved screen was crowned with the Cecil crest and family motto Sero Sed Serio “late, but in earnest’, surely one of the best mottos of all time.

Its painted decoration and a great panoply of decorative devices had been plundered from Turkish rugs and old Medieval manuscripts imposing a visual richness.

If a house during the Tudor period in England, included a Long Gallery hung with portraits of the family, famous patrons or friends it was the mark of a settled and civilized house; an Elizabethan magnate could contemplate their character or otherwise be inspired by their virtues. Owning such a house became important to practicing the art of fine living.

By the beginning of the seventeenth century the French court changed its philosophy from an ideal based on chivalry to one of refined manners.

The most influential teacher of architects in France during this period was Germain Boffrand. He revealed ‘the character of the master of a house…can be judged by the manner in which it is arranged, decorated and furnished’.

By now the art of fine living embraced a well-planned sophisticated garden as well. At Vaux le Vicomte Louis La Vau 1612-70 [architecture] Charles Le Brun 1619-90 [interiors] and Andre Le Notre 1613-1700 [gardens] spent five years building a chateau designed by the three for the glory of one, their patron and illustrious client the Minister for Finances, Nicolas Foucquet. It is at his Chateau, Vaux le Vicomte, that the French classical style was born.

Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre created this extraordinary ‘palace of the sun’ as described by the ancient Latin poet, Ovid for his patron, Apollo, The Sun King.

Here at last was the perfect place for a man of substance and his family to dwell; large, imposing, but not huge; with painted wood panelling, colourful carpets, painted illusionary ceilings, carved and gilded furniture, fabulous ceramics, superb textiles all made for the most splendid of man-made environments.  I know that when I visited to view its splendours I could have easily moved straight in. It was not over ambitious, but comfortable, cleverly disposed and in keeping with its times.

At Vaux le Vicomte Foucquet practiced the art of fine living well, eating his meat from a service that included a new fancy fangled invention called the fork, without fearing the accusation of depravity still associated with that practice only a few years earlier.

The publisher Charles de Sercy described Vaux’s gardens in 1652 as the place where ‘Foucquet made art and nature engage in a pleasant contest’. The genius of Le Notre lay not only in his invention of a new style, but in his absolute mastery of a repertoire widely used, at least in its many parts.

It was bringing them together in a controlled harmonious form that was not only pleasing but also a perfect place in which to practice the art of seduction.

Vaux was built for the enjoyment of the countryside while not giving up the pleasures of the city…something England did not emulate at this time as they concentrated on building country houses for sport and display, rather than as a place to practice the art of conversation.

The Baroque style from Vaux le Vicomte became a potent force that influenced the whole of the western world when guided by Louis XIV, he began expanding his father’s hunting lodge nearby the village of Versailles using the combined talents of Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre.

The Kings of France lived in the chateau of Versailles, which became a centre for political life from 1682 until 1789. It is today an amazing place to visit with its some 2,300 rooms and over 60 staircases. In its day it cost the equivalent price of what we would pay now for a modern city airport. It was an object of universal admiration in its time, enhancing French prestige on the world stage.

France’s appearance and way of life changed forever during the reign of Louis XIV the Sun King. Many great towns throughout France underwent metamorphosis and the landscape altered forever as Louis XIV devoted himself energetically to all his building projects. Today little remains of his other splendid palaces at Saint-Germain and Marly?

Well cursed as an extravagance when it was under construction, and accused of having ruined the nation at the time of the revolution, the chateau at Versailles stands today as a monument to French achievement and the many milestones reached in its historical and cultural journey.

Over the years since it was finished the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles has reflected many great moments in the history of the world. At the time Colbert, Louis’ 1^st Minister and master of ceremonies used it to launch the Royal Mirror Company. Its success gave considerable momentum to the glazing industry in France and increasingly the public became aware of the decor possibilities of a mirror. They enhanced the art of living well.

Despite all of the work Louis was to complete at Versailles it was always called le Chateau, (which means Gentleman’s seat) never le Palais, remaining the home of a young man, grand without being pompous, full of light, air and cheerfulness just like a large country house.

According to the Oxford Dictionary the term enlightenment means to be free of prejudice, ignorance or superstition. Grand Tourists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe were busy discovering the ruins at Rome and an expansion of knowledge revealed that ancient artists and writers had been accustomed to free expression, with religion and honour paramount to society’s daily existence.

This revelation affected the social and moral values of many European societies who were travelling in ever increasing circles in ‘search of the truth’. They began striving for aesthetic perfection wanting to emulate a new ideal; classical perfection.

As a result small temples in a landscape became focal points for those wanting a place of ease and repose.

By the turn of the nineteenth interiors as described by Jane Austen in her novels, presented an image of a sublime world. China, glassware and silverware displayed the family coat of arms proving to those who sat at table with you that your lineage was not only important, but also could be traced to ancient (the inference was more important) times.

Simple white starched linens with drawn thread work were surmounted by elegant vases made of glass, filled with fresh flowers picked from the garden loosely, but consciously arranged and placed on great tables. These were made from the new rage timber, mahogany with their elegantly fluted legs inspired by the columns from a Greek classical temple.

Women’s dresses emulated Greek statuary although some, endeavouring to appear like the goddesses on Greek temples by wetting their dresses, succumbed to pneumonia… because by now death was preferable to not being seen as part of a fashionable scene involved in the art of fine living.

William Morris (1834-1896) self-professed leader of the modern movement said ‘If I were asked to say what is at once the most important product of Art, and the thing most to be longed for, I should answer, a beautiful House’.

Building a house in the country made to appear as old and as venerable as the countryside itself, was what everyone was striving for. If you couldn’t build one you clamoured to be acquainted with those who owned a wonderful old pile. The aim was to affect an invitation to join a country house weekend where the art of pleasure was a very serious business and the art of fine living practiced with confidence and style.

‘Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality’ said English author and art critic John Ruskin 1819 – 1900. He resented social injustice and the squalor that was a direct result of the ‘greed is good’ mentality that accompanied the unbridled capitalism of the Industrial Revolution. His influence on the next generation of artists and craftsmen who led the way toward establishing Le Style Moderne was to be profound.

The agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century removed land as the chief source of wealth in England and by 1901 the money to pay for a country house had to be made in urban centres of trade or, somewhere else in the Empire, like Australia, where the English style and way of life had been transported. World War 1 marked a great divide in the age of the moderns bringing artists face to face with an alternative; either a clean sweep or hope of a reformed society, or alternatively the retention of a privileged art in the service of an elite and moneyed class.

After WWII a focus on art and design coming together again was rejuvenated. At Sydney, the unofficial capital of Australia, a quiet revolution in the art of living well has meant that its interior designers have finally come into their own. Stunning textiles instead of paintings are appearing on the very best walls. Smart eye-catching antique carpets are teaming brilliantly with wide plank nailed timber floors.

Despite the GFC, storm and tempest, floods and fire most owners remain optimistic. Good old Petronius, with his eye for detail and best in life, would have loved the whole concept of a one stop shop and having access to a fabulous design resource like Residence Australia.

During the last decade those who have set the scene for an art of fine living have reinterpreted late nineteenth century European Modernism with great enthusiasm, making it appear all brand new.

Great interiors today are innovative, convenient, comfortable, aesthetically pleasing, technology savvy and above all energy efficient. Sustainability, recycling and quiet elegance have become hallmarks of an interior that will both inspire and nurture its occupants, so that they can enjoy an art of living well.

Carolyn McDowall, ©The Culture Concept Circle 2011, 2012

*Quote by Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)

Related posts:

1. Antique & Art Dealers Association Show at Sydney in Spring
2. EVOLUTION OF ART, DESIGN & STYLE
   Course Outline
3. The Culture Concept Circle – You Tube Channel

Knight farewelling his Lady by Edmund Blair Leighton (1852 - 1922)

Dr Nicholas Perkins the exhibition curator said: ‘It’s a great pleasure to open up the Bodleian’s wonderful collections for this exhibition. They are of huge importance in telling the story of romance, and include some of the most spectacular books from medieval Europe. They have also offered inspiration to those captivated by the Middle Ages as a time of romance and wonder… the Library has nourished both scholarly and imaginative engagement with the medieval for centuries.’

Except for ‘rock and roll’ The Middle Ages at least on the surface, seems to have had it all. Art and life in the age of chivalry was all about Knights on Crusade, handsome Knights rescuing fair maidens, Courtly love, merchants at Venice and Padua involved in family feuds and matters of the heart. Then there were merry monks and monarchs, Queens locked up in towers or at court, tons of people dashing about on passionate pursuits, not to mention those languishing about in gardens of love. Then there was straight out uncomplicated sex, chastity and piety, not necessarily in that order.  Seriously, the beginning of democratic freedoms started at this time, as well as technology and developments in printing, engraving, metallurgy and designs for ships of war and firearms.

Highlights of the exhibition include: The Song of Roland – the earliest copy of France’s national epic (mid-12th century), exquisite ivory carvings from France (14th century), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – one of the most precious manuscripts of Middle English poetry. On loan from the British Library (c.1400), The Red Book of Hergest – amongst the most important books written in Welsh, containing The Mabinogion and many other texts, on loan from Jesus College, Oxford (c.1400), William Caxton’s The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye – a copy of the first book ever printed in the English language (1473/4). There is a draft illustrated page from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1946), Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Terry Jones’s own working copy of the screenplay for the film, never shown to the public before (1973).

Manuscripts and early printed books from the ‘Romanz’ period of the Middle Ages, lavishly illustrated volumes about King Arthur or Alexander the Great as well as personal notebooks and fragments saved by chance are also on show. The exhibition examines how stories from this period inspired writers and artists across the centuries, including William Shakespeare, Ludovico Ariosto and Miguel de Cervantes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Sir Walter Scott, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris in the nineteenth century, as well as JRR Tolkien, Philip Pullman,  the Monty Python team and JK Rowling during the twentieth century.

Medieval Christianity embraced every aspect of life during the Middle Ages.  “The House of God’ was like the trinity, divided into three. It was a frontier society, fragmented, fearful and fortified against itself. Feudalism rested equally on lord and castle, peasant and hut, the monk and his church – those who prayed, those who went to war and those who worked the fields.

Europe’s social equilibrium depended on these three groups happily co-existing. Taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience helped determine a pattern for medieval living. During this period towns, in the true sense of the word ceased to exist with fortified castles and the protection of a lord under a feudal system, the only security for everyone.

During the eleventh century books about the practice of medicine by important Muslim physicians like Ibn Sina (980-1037 CE) and al-Razi (864-930 CE) were translated into Latin and brought into European universities, which had been established by the Christian church. They were used for centuries. They included an understanding of hygiene and the importance of cleanliness, which meant separate wards for different diseases. An established system of medical care was open to all. Hospitals set up in Spain by Andalusian physicians included great gardens with running water as part of their natural therapies. Doctors had a concern and care for their patients, treating them with great kindness and dignity.

Out of the carnage and chaos of the Crusades to the Holy Land all was not loss and destruction. Crusaders brought back to Europe and England positive influences such as enlightened thought in theology and spirituality; a great deal of plant material and methods of horticulture that enlivened and enlarged that known in Europe until that point in time.

There was a great deal of influence also on architecture, including the introduction of the brick and decorative brickwork into England via France, as well as into the design of churches and castles. Illumination of manuscripts was another direct result, a graphic expression of the priceless jewel contained in the Scripture of God’s revelation to man. It became considered highly appropriate to embellish books that contained his words. This also allowed for an additional, worthy thought, that of aesthetic pleasure and monks in monastic libraries kept alive the light of learning and enlightenment with their creativity.

During the twelfth century advances in philosophy and science imposed themselves and the nature of the individual was held up to scrutiny. This “Twelfth Century Awakening” refers to an outpouring of extraordinary intellectual inquiry and discovery that took place just as Cathedral schools and universities being established in England and Europe through the influence of the powerful Islamic influence on thought.

The Knight in medieval times was an absolute master of his castle, and his wife. A contemporary description gives us a glimpse of Norman knights ‘riding ‘through the meadows and gardens – happy and joyful on their horses, cavorting hither and thither. Expressing personal feelings in relation to the beauty and bountiful joys of women was the province of troubadours, who were both composers and performers of lyrical poetry. They roved about visiting castles and their communities to deliver the latest ditties in song. The themes favoured were chivalry and courtly love.

Courtly love was a cult that refined the manners of many a knight, while it encouraged marital indiscretion. It glorified the relationship of a knight to his chosen lady, which meant any lady but his wife. In the Garden of Love, knights and ladies exchanged amorous banter to the songs of a troubadour. ‘Lady take me body and heart, and keep me for your love’.

The most famous literary celebration of gardens from the Middle Ages was the Romaunt de la Rose printed in 1277. In it the lover, possibly a knight, goes in search of the desirable symbolic rose. The lover wanders into an outer garden where he is confronted by a high wall with a door in it. He cannot enter until the door is opened by Lady idleness; he enters the inner garden where the trees are set at exactly equal distances and have their tops so inter-woven that the sun’s rays cannot penetrate. He finds himself in a place belonging to the spirit to make him happy and full of joy’. In this representation Adamant the lover is being led into the garden by idleness, and narcissus is studying his reflection in the well.

The origins of courtly love can be traced to the court of William IX, Duke of Aquitaine one of the first troubadour poets as well as leaders of the first crusade in 1101. Born on the wrong side of the blanket, William was the son of his father’s third wife whom the Roman church did not recognise.  An anonymous biography written in the 13th century said of him…

‘The Count of Poitiers was one of the most courtly men in the world and one of the greatest deceivers of women. He was a fine knight at arms, liberal in his womanizing, and a fine composer and singer of songs. He travelled much through the world, seducing women’.

He was the earliest troubadour some of whose work still survives as a testimony to his romantic adventures. He loved scandal and shocking everyone but was known for being kind and generous. We could be generous too and say that he genuinely shared the love around….

This is a time when the classical revival and the new and exciting literature for leisure appeared. It was defined by the use of the Latin word Romanz, as distinct from what was known as ‘real’ literature, which was ironically written in Latin. With its captivating themes of love, ladies and passion in the courts of Europe it was not long before it became known as Romantic literature.

The exhibition at Oxford also highlights works by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400), who is known today as the Father of English Literature and widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages.

In graphic art singers from the Middle Ages are shown often with strained expressions, their furrowed brows and exaggerated mouth positions suggest perhaps Chaucer was right when, in his fourteenth century Canterbury Tales when he described singing as being ‘intoned through the nose’.

The Book of Hours, contained ‘painted prayers’, that were appointed for various hours of the day, based on monastic practice.

For over 300 years they were best sellers, one of the most famous belonging to the Duc du Berry, a French nobleman. They are today a wonderful source for illustrative representations of gardens as well as important cultural artifacts from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.

Sir Walter Scott’s stories of the knights of the crusades such as Ivanhoe helped to fuel the Gothic Medieval Revival in England during the nineteenth century. They were romantic, gallant and inspiring, influencing all aspects of design and the decorative arts. Sir Walter Scott as well as being an author had a great passion for reading at a time when libraries became an integral part of every educated person’s way of life. They offered a peaceful place for study and hours of quiet contemplation.

The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford form the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. They include the principal University library—the Bodleian Library—which has been a library of legal deposit for 400 years; major research libraries; and libraries attached to faculties, departments and other institutions of the University. The combined library collections number more than 11 million printed items, in addition to 30,000 e-journals and vast quantities of materials in other formats.

The Romance of the Middle Ages @the Bodleian Library
Opens 28th January – Runs until 13th May, 2012
Exhibition Room, Bodleian Library, Old Schools Quad, Catte Street, Oxford
Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday 9.00 – 17.00
Saturday 9.00 – 16.30
Sunday 11.00 – 17.00

Free Lectures – Time: 13.00 – 13.30
Convocation House, Old Bodleian Library (Entrance Old Schools Quad)
1st February : Before Tolkien: Manuscripts, Audiences and Readers of Middle English Romance – Dr Alison Wiggins (Senior Lecturer in English Language, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow)
15th February: The Birth of Romance in England – Dr Laura Ashe (University Lecturer and Tutor in English Literature, Worcester College, Oxford) Wednesday, 15 February
7th March: Medieval Romance and the Gift of Storytelling – Dr Nicholas Perkins (University Lecturer and Tutor in English, St Hugh’s College, Oxford; Curator of Exhibition)
23rd March: Shakespeare and Medieval Romance – Professor Helen Cooper (Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature, Magdalene College, Cambridge)

Exhibition website: http://medievalromance.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Related posts:

1. Ragtime to Riches, Collector’s Legacy @ The Bodleian Library
2. Treasures of the Bodleian and Humankind – Cherishing Wisdom
3. Great Voices Inspiring the Ages, Antiquity to Aslan and More

Literacy is language in use – speaking, listening, reading, viewing, watching, writing and drawing. Children of the future need to be as fluent in as many of these disciplines as they can be. The family that reads, draws and plays together is a happy healthy well balanced one, especially if it encourages its children to become proficient and learn how to read from a screen.

Do you Love2Read? In Australia it is the National Year of Reading in 2012. Ensuring that we become a nation that loves to read is what it is all about. It’s also about boosting the literacy of children. Especially those coming new to the learning experience. Parents need to  ensure that their reading efforts are up to recommended educational standards. Statistics reveal nearly half Australia’s population is unable to read, at least with a good degree of fluency. This does not augur well for the future of Australia and her economy, let alone for the people who fall into this category. All parents of children from the cradle onward need to ensure that some part of their day includes a period of reading, or being read aloud to.

Our days can become so frenetic it is often difficult to take time out to indulge ourselves in pleasurable reading. But take time out we must if we are going to contribute meaningfully in the years ahead. Are we right however to put the main emphasis onto books per se?

This is a world in which children and students are growing up computer savvy and often literate in multiple software programs. They are growing up with technology and have readily adapted to its many intricacies as they must, if they are to contribute to their future in their own time and long after their parents and grandparents have gone.

Because so many now look at a screen all day that doesn’t mean that they grasp all of its complexities. Eric Anderson, Assistant Professor at the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, USA has written a paper about enhancing visual literacy through cognitive activities.  He believes one of the main reasons many students are having difficulties is because of the mixed signals they receive. It does not do them a favour if their parents and other people around them, who may be avid readers of books in print, rant and rave (and I have heard some do this) about how they should not be reading on a screen but in book format.

Reading on a screen may not be as romantic, as tactile or as delightful in some people’s eyes as reading a book printed on paper. And, I certainly concur, but only to a point. The main point is to have them read in the first place. Words are how the world works, and they need to use any means at their disposal, and available to them if they are to learn how to enjoy the experience of reading. Today books are increasingly available to download to the iPhone, iPad, the Kindle and to our computers. The launch of iAuthor by Apple recently will change the face of textbooks in our schools. The new application is available free, and together with other apps for publishing ebooks, just about any kind of book can be brought to life in ways the printed page could never offer and it will reinvent the future of learning.

This is part of an ongoing debate about nature vs. nurture. Today we would probably agree nature is about what a child brings into the world with them, their physical appearance and genetically engineered character traits. Nurture is how the environment a child is exposed to shapes its genetic tendencies. Then there is heredity vs. environment and morality vs. immorality. Do people in the main react more to ways they are taught or according to genetic predisposition?

What is the importance of conditioning and thought on human development. How does it affect gender roles? The debate is not new. It has been raging for centuries. We do know young people learn through their physical, social and cultural environments. It is not a case of one or the other either, but all. If they see a parent enjoying the experience of reading then they are likely to read themselves.

Subject a child to cruelty or abuse, either physically or emotionally, or both, and you might expect that eventually it will end up committing horrendous crimes and in prison. Seems to be the ‘profile’ for serial crime offenders, at least on T.V. However that has not always been found to be the case. Humans do seem to have an extra quality, or an ability that allows some at least to adapt and change as they grow. This undefined element ensures some do overcome nature and nurture, heredity and environment to become something else entirely? What is this inner strength of will that enables one child over another, including siblings, to suffer and struggle often silently through terrible times and in maturity overcome adversity to triumph and go on to lead what they may consider a ‘normal’ life? But what is normal?

To advance historically, creatively and culturally since way back in the distant ancient past humankind has always needed to achieve far beyond what might be otherwise constitute normality. Where would the world be now without some of those larger than life people in history, who not only changed its course but also impacted on what would happen in the future? Today we see some of them through very rose coloured glasses, seemingly overlooking their flaws because that is how it is with memories of those who have passed on, that in time it is only their goodness we remember.

In endeavouring to understand we can turn to popular culture. For instance: In Hollywood producer and director George Lucas’s six episode epic Star Wars he endeavours to explain the enigmatic Anniken Skywalker’s ascendancy from being child who appeared insightful, clever, good and even wise (wisdom has nothing to do with age) to descend as a man into the darker side of his nature to become the dark evil Lord Darth Vader. Anniken fell foul to temptation, casting aside his wife refusing her love and deserting his only children to pursue power, which once attained became for him the loneliest place in the galaxy. But his son Luke doesn’t give up on him. He demonstrates a singular strength of will to resist the same persuasion metered out by the Emperor and redeems and forgives his father so that he can become part of a life giving force.

We are left to ponder was it conditioning, a failure of genetics or a conscious educated choice his father made? Was he simply immoral, understanding the difference while doing wrong anyway? Or was he confused because he was emotionally and physically scarred. Whatever the answer the moral of the Star Wars series remains, that through achievements in literacy, learning and living a life of forgiveness, so much more is possible for human society.

Its good to remember that before books in print there was an oral tradition of storytelling in cultures all over the world. Reading on a papyrus or on a scroll was an advancement of society, just as some type of screen is the way of a child of today’s future, and so to be proficient in that medium too is very important.

In ancient Roman society life was very hard and very different to society today. A father was considered a child’s ‘owner’ whether it was a natural or adopted child. Roman citizens taught their children to read and write and the boys to use weapons. They could also deny them and cast them out and newborn children could be killed or sold. Deformed and unwanted children were placed on a hillside to die.

From the third century onward children were given an education until they were twelve, with boys only taken into a situation of higher learning. During the Middle Ages (c5th – c15th centuries) children of the well to do were dressed and treated as miniature adults whether they were boys or girls. By the time they were nine they had to be able to converse with adults.

They were also regularly flogged for every kind of offence including bad manners and untidiness. Most parents agreed it was a necessary corrective and they were sent away as their forbears had been into service, to schools where cruelty seemed to thrive and only occasionally they were brought to see their parents to say grace for them or to read a passage of scripture.

One of the founding principles of humanism in the fifteenth century in Italy was an emphasis on virtuous action as an aim of learning. Architect and leading thinker Leone Battista Albertini (Alberti) 1404-1472 wrote “Della Famiglia” (of the family) about marital problems, father and son conflicts, bringing up children, love and friendship and much more.

He sincerely believed the natural place for education was in the home. He wrote his influential treatise about the family for a broad based urban public, one that was not skilled in Latin. He was endeavouring to reach out and raise standards of literacy across the wider community. His youth was all about achievement and the positive attitude that he was raised in affected his life’s journey. His accomplishments reveal that he was able to strike a unique balance between theory and practice, which are often poles apart.

By the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe social attitudes toward children were changing significantly. In the continual circles of the aristocracy and upper middle and merchant classes essays expounding the nature and nurturing of children were being taken seriously.

For working class children however the situation didn’t change, and between the ages of ten and sixteen they still lived an adult existence as throughout the Middle Ages.

They were apprenticed early and obliged to help their parents with routine chores. They well knew the rhythms, constraints and rigors of a hard working life. Although not yet independent they belonged as much to the neighbourhood as to their parents, by serving as a link delivering messages in the area where they lived. In this way neighbours, artisans, merchants, curates, policemen all kept an eye on youngster’s growing up. Raising children was a community concern.

Le Petite Dejeneur c1739 by French painter Francois Boucher (Musee de Louvre, Paris) captures perfectly the spirit of the eighteenth century intellectual enlightenment. The scene is delightfully intimate.

The family are sharing a morning meal together in a small room, whose furnishings while tasteful are not really luxurious by our standards today. It is the look of care and concern on the faces of the parents, who are gazing at their little daughter, playing with her horse and doll that is quite moving and a scene of graceful informality pleasing to behold.

Traditionally since that time children have learned within their family and community groups. Within this social context a wealth of knowledge, diversity of experiences and identities enhanced the learning process

During the nineteenth century as printing presses and the books they produced became more accessible, the adult-child shared book reading experience became recognised by many early childhood organisations and other regulatory bodies. Reading together emerged as an essential interaction for young children and became very definitely associated with various developmental outcomes.

Sharing stories also became a bridge between speaking and reading that began in infancy and continued throughout childhood. It was important to foster a child’s emerging literacy, as it also strengthened the bond between the adult and child. J.M. Barrie’s famous novel Peter Pan encouraged parents everywhere to read to their children who were hoping that he, Wendy, Tinker Bell and the Lost Boys might come to listen.

Reading aloud boosts the literacy, learning and listening skills of children everywhere. The warmth of the stories, the care and focus of an older child or an adult reader and the establishment of a reading routine can expand a child’s horizons. It is also a joyous experience providing parents, families and friends with opportunities for communicating in a happy environment.

When an adult, or older child reads to a young child it aids its emotional wellbeing and boosts its self-esteem. Teaming knowledge with imagination assists them to discover the world around them and inspires their interest and attitude in what the world has to offer.

An educator of over twenty-five years experience Australian children’s author Mem Fox says children who are read aloud to associate books with feelings of safety and happiness.

Listening to stories from the first months of life helps children understand the stories we hear and read through books are filled with facts, fun, fantasy and food for thought.

For children less than five; reading aloud prepares them towards success at school.  They have a greater capacity for absorbing information at this period in their lives so it follows that the greater the opportunities to learn then the greater their options will be.

For children over five reading aloud assists to expand their experiences and enjoy being positive about themselves and others.

Statistics available from various State Government Departments of Child Safety and organisations such as Early Childhood Australia, or the Talaris Institute in the USA document the expansion and strain on regulatory bodies, organisations and people as the world changes rapidly for children, families and the professionals who work with them.

Interestingly the time where the least funding by governments is directed to children’s care and education is in the years before they turn five. In this area the important role parents, carers and families play in helping a child is acknowledged as a major determinant in the success of their future learning.

Neurologists, psychologists, educators and mentors are acutely aware of the significant role nature and nurture plays in the evolution of a culture and its society. So perhaps declaring a National Year of Reading in Australia is a step in the right direction. How we deal with children, especially in their early years, needs to be placed within the broader context of social development and gender equity if we want to improve the quality of life for everyone worldwide.

The National Year of Reading 2012, it is all about accessing and learning words, which are how the world works.

About the revolution in textbooks – Apple in Education

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDNQr52b4oI

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

*Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689 – 1762)

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Spending a rainy day reading in bed is certainly my idea of luxury. I have always imagined that one day I may very well end up like the ‘poor poet’ in one of my favourite, charming ‘Beidermeier paintings’ by Carl Spietzwig. In my room, snuggled up with just my bed and books around me. Although hopefully, I won’t need an umbrella like he has, to stave off the leaks when it rains.

My God of Double Happiness his 'Mona Lisa' smile quite grabbed my attention years ago when he was part of a collection belonging to a friend. It's the crinkles around his eyes that drew me in.

In a way surrounding myself with books has been part of my looking to value myself and to conserve my health and wellbeing for a very long time. They have also aided my life’s journey and over the years have practically helped me to plan many adventures with my family, both at home and overseas. For thirteen years they were also freely available to students of The Academy (Academy of Design and Decorative Arts) who spent many a happy hour browsing and researching from them in the Art Deco Academy space in Macquarie Street at Sydney (1992 – 1999) and in The Turret teaching space in the precinct of St John’s Cathedral at Brisbane (2000 – 2005).

When, a few years ago, I was put into a position of having to sell off this fine art, design history and decorative arts library, which had been put together lovingly over forty years, it was like tearing out both my heart and soul. One of the few people who understood why I was so distressed was my eldest son, also a bit of a Bibliophile, albeit on a smaller scale these days. He is collecting books on a Kindle instead of in a bookcase. Certainly much easier to take with you when you move. After making all the arrangements to send them off at the last minute I couldn’t bear to see them all go, because they were so important to my security. Irrational I know, but there it is, I am only human. And I freely admit they were, and are my ‘Linus’ blanket. My books, and my wonderful ceramic God of double happiness are my home, and where they both are you will find me also.

So, the night before they were leaving, and because I wanted to survive well I grabbed back a small cross referenced collection, which included some renowned for their scholarship,  some that placed form above content, some that were old, some rare, and some first editions, as well as one or two from private presses and the like.

For a long time they were unable to be unpacked but they are now and surround me daily in my working space at Melbourne, along with my ceramic God of Double Happiness and a large tapestry that I love. The ‘God’ is really special as he once belonged to a friend of mine whose erudition I admired. He used to visit me often to share his prodigious knowledge. When he passed on into that big library in the sky I secured him at auction.

Being a bibliophile is not only about heartbreak, it is also about happiness too. The ‘smell’ of books en masse has for me at least, has always been very alluring. Especially since many childhood hours spent in the Randwick Municipal Library and later the State Library in Macquarie Street at Sydney.

I have always loved those books ‘bound in Morocco’, a tradition associated with binding books with the skin of goats formerly grazing the grass at exotic Morocco. And what about those with pure gold protecting the edges of their beautiful hand made paper from dust.

For me, and I suspect for many other members of the ‘baby boomer’ generation, part of the process of having an association with books was browsing through the bookstores. Such special places. I have particularly enjoyed hunting about in shops that specialized in antique and out of print books.

Frequent visits to Melbourne were a joy and found me headed straight for Kay Craddock’s basement bookstore on chic Collins Street, which was right next door to the fabulous flagship emporium, Georges, now only a memory too.

Happily I can report from Melbourne, for those that may not know, Kay is now back in her book basement following renovations to the building.

Browsing in the rare division and buying at Berkelouw’s amazing book barn in the Southern Highlands of NSW was an annual joy all through the ’80′s and early 90′s. Often when purchasing old and rare books I would find a personal photo, a cutting from a newspaper, or a letter from a previous owner that had been filed away carefully and then passed along to me. Special.

I remember being in Berkelouw’s store at Paddington in Sydney in the early 90′s and discovering a rare set of all the novels by the controversial (woman dressed as a man) author George Sand (1804 – 1876) brilliantly bound in colourful Morocco. At the time I so wished they could be mine, but they were outside my budget so I had to decline. I was always ‘tough’ with myself about the budget. They were of special interest though and I enjoyed the opportunity to view and handle them wearing white gloves. Not long before this had happened I had seen the movie Impromptu (1991), which starred Australian actor Judy Davis as the writer who dressed like a man, George Sand with Hugh Grant as Chopin and Julian Sands as Franz Liszt. Just brilliant.

Incredibly a few nights later I went out to Sydney airport to pick up my husband from off the last flight from Melbourne. In those days it was easy to go through and wait at the door for the passengers to come off the plane. As I was standing there alone, at about 10 pm amazingly, up came Judy Davis.

Judy Davis as George Sand, Impromptu

Ms Davis was there to also pick up her husband Colin Friels from the same plane. So I plucked up the courage to talk to her and we passed pleasanteries. I told her all about my find and the delightful set of Sand novels in the Paddington store and said that if anyone should own them, she should, having played Sand so brilliantly. When I went back a few weeks later they were gone and I have always wondered if they ended up in her bookcase. It’s a mystery.

Then there is a delightful poem I discovered tucked up in a book about glass. Called Chinoiserie, it was written by someone who remains anonymous.  Click the red link if you would like to read it.

There were constant delights when plotting with a book dealer and friend James Larsen, who was an enthusiastic and important conduit in my search for additions to my ever expanding collection. He would ring out of the blue from unexpected places to report his findings. I remember it took him years in the eighties to find a copy of Nancy Mitford’s large ‘coffee table’ size book of the biography of Madame de Pompadour for me.

Then he endeared himself forever when he also found the biography of Louis XIV The Sun King in the same large edition. James Larsen specialized in finding rare and out of print editions, crime, science fiction, history, biography, and children’s books and still does, in his delightful bookstore at Exeter in NSW. These days he’s also handily ‘online’.

The longest time we spent was about ten years to find a pristine copy of the limited edition of the very rare ‘Castiglione at the Court of the Chinese Emperors’. In all that time I never gave up hope one would turn up as another Bibliophile joined that larger library in the sky. Then out of the blue he rang from deep in one of the states in the U.S.A. to say he had found it and to confirm its purchase.

Remembering that someone else had preserved, and passed a book along to me was what eventually got me through my personal crisis over losing most of my treasured library. I had to keep reminding myself it was all about being a conservator and safeguarding someone else’s imagination, which as 20th century scientist extraordinaire Albert Einstein reminded us, is more important than knowledge.

An early association with books, or learning in any form, is the path to getting in the habit of embracing lifelong learning, which is now an essential aspect of twenty first century life. Encouraging children to read and become used to handling books should happen for any child from as soon after birth is possible. Reading aloud to them is vital in ensuring their path forward will be as good as it can be.

As soon as each of my three sons arrived home from the hospital a colourful heavy card or padded plastic book was the first object that went into their cot alongside a colourful mobile and rattle. By the time they all sat up it was the first thing they reached for.

Reading aloud, and singing a song each night before they went to sleep, became an essential aspect of their daily routine and early education from a few months onward. Reading aloud continued until they were all able to do it for themselves, and even then the youngest would still occasionally ask would I read to him to help him go to sleep.

Having a love of reading certainly helped each of them with their study and attaining good averages at school and university. Now all grown up one of them is actually in the book business, one has been in the publishing business, although he has now moved into digital media and the third is in the telecommunications business. I am sure the reading aloud helped shape their future.

Today, I am very pleased to observe they are all still voracious readers and devourers of knowledge. Recently it was revealed that reading aloud and my singing them to sleep at night is among the happiest memories of their childhood, as were trips to the The Children’s Bookshop (1971) at Beecroft in the northern districts of Sydney where we lived for eleven years.

The world is now a changing, with ebooks and ibooks being the way of the future. After this decade to enjoy the tactile quality of books will mean visiting ‘antique’ or ‘vintage’ style bookshops.

Being a bibliophile has been part of my life journey and like most people, it started in my childhood, however it was not as well planned by my own parents, even though my father was in the ‘education’ business. A Headmaster.

It was my mother who first encouraged my interest in reading because her childhood had been virtually bereft of books, except those kept at the tiny one man, one room school she attended as one of the daughters of the Head Shearer on the Belltrees Station at Scone in rural NSW.

Her education ceased at sixth grade Primary School because out of her big family she was the one ‘chosen’ to stay at home and complete domestic tasks and look after her mother. Although she got out of that one by marrying and having seven children of her own. So it was left to dear Aunty Ivy, whose fiancée was killed in World War II, to fulfill that role. She was a great reader too and encouraged me constantly.

As I was growing up my mother was always warning me of the very real dangers associated with ‘rising above one’s station in life’. This was totally at odds with her secretly encouraging me to read and expand my knowledge behind closed doors. My darling grandmother was the most encouraging.

She wanted me to not rise or walk, but to leap forward and embrace life and knowledge. She knew it was the only way to keep ‘moving forward’ as she had done when her husband died dreadfully of cancer at a young age and she gathered up her 9 children (3 fostered) and moved to Sydney so they would all survive.

Following my father’s death, when my mother was 66, she was found every day devouring every word in the Herald newspaper and Women’s Weekly monthly magazine, which were the only luxuries she could allow herself on her Australian ‘widow’s’ pension. I was in a position at the time to indulge her new found love of reading with novels I knew she would enjoy for gifts. She became an armchair traveler until finally in 1999, aged 93 she journeyed on alone.

Heartbreak and happiness is definitely part of the story of a bibliophile. Why I became one? Well that is a another story and for another day.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2010 – 2012

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One of the enchanting figures on the Chinoiserie Style Pavilion in Sansouci Park at Potsdam. Johnn Gottfried Büring was the architect and it was built between 1755 and 1764 by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1712-1786)

What is Art Deco
Art Deco (1920 – 1940) is a design style that reached the apex of its popularity between two global conflicts, World War I and II. It borrowed from virtually all the design styles of the past in order to fashion the future. It was the perfect expression of Paris during the 20’s to the 30’s and embraced every area of design and the decorative arts including architecture, interiors, furniture, jewellery, painting and graphics, bookbinding, costume, glass and ceramics. It was all about glamour. It was also about completing a deeply felt need for a style that would never be threatened by change. Its protagonists wanted to ward off the threat of a civilization dominated by either industry or technology, or both. The idea was to integrate contemporary living with art and turn life into art and for a while they succeeded.

Chinoiserie, More than Fantasy and Fashion
During the eighteenth century in Europe and England all things Chinese had assumed incredible proportions as fashionable society sought to transmit their ideas about the magical land of Cathay through a multiplicity of imagery. It manifested itself in intimate interiors where mirrored rooms reflected scenes of frivolity well. It draped itself delightfully with sumptuous silk textiles that recorded scenes of fashion and folly. The admiration of all things Chinese also led to the ultimate crossing over of cultural influences. On the scale of things a very few people in England and Europe had ever seen someone who was Chinese so their vivid imagination took over and, when combined with a great layering of charm, Chinoiserie was a style that was very fetching.

Jane Austen, more than the cultivation of the mind?
While her only known image may seem to reveal otherwise, there was nothing really plain about Jane Austen 1775 – 1817. Her novels, which have become classics in their own right, allow us today to share the memory of the robust society in which she lived and its privileges of rank. It was a colourful, turbulent and seemingly romantic world in the process of rapid evolution. The English provincial life, as led by Jane Austen and some of her heroines, was one of quality and modesty. A cultivated ambiance of politeness, with a keen though delicate sensibility was well balanced by common sense.

If you would like to watch more videos just bookmark our link http://www.youtube.com/user/carolynmcdowall

Carolyn McDowall, Writer in Residence, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

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In society collectors over the centuries have come from all walks of life and all backgrounds. Their motives have varied greatly, although they all have in common that fervant desire to preserve and protect the art and literature of the past in many shapes and different forms. There is the dilettante, the learned connoisseur, the curio hunter all of whom have hoarded their treasures; some in secret while others place them on display to enhance their self esteem. Many however have valued their privacy, and it is only after their death that the full extent of their holdings become clear. Currently on display at the Bodleian Library at Oxford in England is a selection showcasing the largest donation of material it has ever received. It is open FREE to all those who can get to Oxford before the 29th January. The display has been chosen from an extraordinary collection of rare musical works, verse and ephemera, which weighed some 20 tonnes and took two chartered aircraft to carry. It has traveled from the basement of a ‘shabby’ house in Chicago to the rarified atmosphere of the conserving libraries at Oxford in England.

Its benefactor, Walter Newton Henry Harding was born in south London in 1883.  He became an English emigré, the son of an East End bricklayer who migrated with his family to America when he was four years old. He grew up to be a ragtime pianist in a time when this original musical genre was enjoying its peak of popularity (1897 – 1918). This was when one of its main protagonists, composer and musician Scott Joplin penned his great hit the Maple Leaf Rag, which after that time heavily influenced the arrangements of melodies, harmonic progressions and metric patterns by other composers.

From 1909 – 1914 Harding was playing in silent cinema, and later became an organist playing at various churches and his masonic lodge in downtown Chicago. His was seemingly an ordinary life. The family timber framed home tucked away in an urban location, became a repository for his collection of printed music, verse and drama. His passion for collecting new no bounds, despite his very limited means. He preserved a legacy of popular music and verse from the 17th and 18th centuries, during a time when they had no value, to a time when they have become a rich irreplaceable music and cultural resource. His collection was meticulously indexed, despite Mr Harding not having had an academic or musical education. Forming the collection seems to have been all about his own sense of homelessness; of being displaced from his English homeland and from the culture that was his heritage. It contained opera and musical comedy scores, English art and popular songs, French songs and American popular sheet music from the 1790′s through to the 1960′s. For the Bodleian, and the rest of us, Harding’s collection is now a valued legacy.

Gathering all these rare and wonderful works together gave Harding a reference point, one that no doubt helped him to make sense out of the story of his own life. He gathered together the largest collection of popular songbooks before he died in 1972, leaving them to the Bodleian library, despite having never visited Oxford.

Clive Hurst, Head of Rare Books, Bodleian Libraries, said ‘…we hope that his story will inspire similar generosity in others to support our libraries.’

On the 18th January display curator Dr Abigail Williams will present a talk and a voice and violin Duo Alva, a short concert of music from works in the collection. This will include a parlour song by Walter Harding entitled ‘All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go’.

Despite the collection having arrived in 900 crates 20 years ago Dr Williams said recently: ‘…his legacy is still living and we have only just begun to uncover the riches in this varied and unusual collection’.

Walter Harding’s collection constitutes a remarkable resource for scholarship in many fields, including the art of collecting.

DISPLAY
Until 29 January 2012 Mon-Fri 9.00-19.00; Sat 9.00-16.30; Sun 11.00-17.00
Bodleian Library Catte Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG
ADMISSION FREE

TALKS AND MUSIC
18 Jan 2012 5:00pm-7:00pm
Divinity School and Convocation House, Bodleian Library
Tickets free. E-mail – with Subject line: HARDING MUSIC – rsvp@bodleian.ox.ac.uk or phone 01865 277000 to reserve tickets.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford form the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. They include the principal University library—the Bodleian Library—which has been a library of legal deposit for 400 years; major research libraries; and libraries attached to faculties, departments and other institutions of the University. The combined library collections number more than 11 million printed items, in addition to 30,000 e-journals and vast quantities of materials in other formats. For additional information see www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Ref: Press Release Bodleian Libraries : JStor American Sheet Music in the Walter N. H. Harding Collection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University – Jean Geil – Notes Second Series, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Jun., 1978), pp. 805-813

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‘Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound

Traumatised by the memory of the dreadful death of his father on the moor when he was nine, a grown up well-provided for Henry is desperate to get out of therapy and to lead a normal life. He does not want to live the rest of it in the fear of what he witnessed as a child as he watched his father torn to pieces by a giant hound with glowing red eyes.

Fear is the operative word in the second episode of the second series of the BBC’s Sherlock, reports our London correspondent. Creative duo Steven Moffat and Mark Gattis contemporary Sherlock is lured out of the city into the countryside simply by the word hound.

Mark Gattis has conjured up another great contemporary take on one of Conan Doyle’s most famous Sherlock Holmes tales, which he calls The Hounds of Baskerville. In the first of the second series we learned that perhaps Sherlock might have a capacity for love, as he sparred with the lovely Irene Adler. This week he’s dashing about on a bleak, but beautiful Dartmoor. This is a wild geologically rich moorland in South Devon, England where Holmes encounters and experience real ‘fear’ for the first time in his life. Holmes standing on a rock overlooking the moor is a ‘Wuthering Heights’ Heathcliff moment well captured. You are right Watson, a turned up collar on his now famous Belstaff ‘Milford” coat, made of pure Irish wool tweed, does make him look at the essence of ‘cool’.

Detective Inspector LeStrade (Rupert Graves) is sent in by Sherlock’s brother Mycroft to keep an eye on the brother he worries about as he’s busy himself, having locked up the evil Moriarty in a government facility. Things are getting a little bit more personal with Scotland Yard’s finest, as we find out his given name is George? Not as romantic as we might have hoped for the adorable LeStrade, but there it is. He is also enjoying the chance to leave London behind for a breathe of fresh country air, although chasing a huge ‘super dog’ capable of killing a grown man was perhaps a little more than he bargained for. Just what is going on in the mist of Dewer’s Hollow, which is below the secret military base of Baskerville?

Protected by a field of land mines, this creepy place just reeks of murder and mystery, keeping all the locals at bay. Visiting the Baskerville chemical and biological weapons research centre Holmes and Watson find out about the horrors of genetic engineering and so a super dog seems more than plausible, even a possibility. Cumberbatch is at his brilliant best in this, his mood swings are quite confronting as he nearly alienates Watson his first and foremost friend with his words and actions. Apologising is not really in his make up but he does, showing us another side to his complex characterisation. Freeman just loves being Watson, you can tell, and he is completely awesome. Henry in the meantime is freaking himself out with memories coming thick and fast. He nearly kills his therapist in a hallucinating session about the hound he believes he has seen.

Visiting the local superbly thatched pub Watson does some detecting on his own and soon discovers the ‘innkeepers’ have ordered an inordinate amount of meat, perhaps to feed The Hounds of Baskerville that keep tourists coming, boosting the local economy?

Is the hound real or a figment of the imagination? It certainly has a gut wrenching growl. When Sherlock actually sees it for the first time, the encounter causes all sorts of ramifications for those around him. There is a great deal of action going on with some scary moments that will send the heart a racing. The Sci Fi element is nicely handled and the haunting quality of the horrible hollow on the moors perfectly captured. Dashing through the woods on a dark, only moonlit night with only a few torches, is just the right amount of scary for anyone.

After Holmes has once again brilliantly deduced what is happening and solved the mystery, which we won’t spoil here, the episode ends with Moriarty being let go by Mycroft to participate no doubt in ‘The Reichenbach Fall’, the final in the Sherlock series for 2012.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

Watch the Trailers

Sherlock Series 2 Episode 2 The Hounds of Baskerville

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCPwZYkulF8

Sherlock Series 2 Episode 3 The Reichenbach Fall Preview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MimV42deNMA

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Sherlock wearing only a sheet in a Buckingham Palace Drawing Room

Awesome! Writer Steven Moffat has surely outdone himself with the first story in the second series of Sherlock, featuring the enigmatic and erudite Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and award-winning Martin Freeman as Dr Watson. In an interview on BBC Breakfast on December 20th Moffat declared that he and co-creator Mark Gattis have been far more faithful to the Conan Doyle originals, even though they have transposed his stories for the modern day. Scandal in Belgravia (not Bohemia) certainly lives up to the reputation given to Sherlock Holmes by its original creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The captivating author would surely be smiling if he was around to see what his favourite detective is currently getting up to. Cumberbatch was surely born to play Sherlock Holmes. And, in this episode he also gets to wear the ‘deerstalker hat’.

Sherlock re-commenced on the BBC on New Year’s Day, reports our London correspondent, with very little prior notice. But some ten million people caught the message and tuned in. A staggering result. Although I imagine many of the BBC’s traditional audience might have found some scenes quite confronting. Moffat and Mark Gatiss’s brilliant reinvention of a contemporary Sherlock is brainy, sexy and savvy. Sherlock outwits ‘The Woman’ – Irene Adler, by cracking the code to reveal damaging information about a royal ‘client’ stored on her smart phone. But that’s not all that is revealed. Ms Adler, played brilliantly by Lara Pulver, bares all to the viewers, to Sherlock and to Dr Watson (who one would think would be used to seeing naked women). According to Britain’s Daily Mail the series co-creator Steven Moffat said he gave Holmes an overtly sexual sparring partner to scotch speculation about a homosexual undercurrent to the relationship between him and Dr John Watson. Sherlock also lets us know his body is not so bad either, when he nearly loses the sheet wrapped around his naked frame. And, in a Buckingham Palace Drawing Room of all places. What is the world coming to.

After ending the first series on a ‘cliff hanger’ with Moriarty about to blow up Watson in a Swimming Pool complex, after Moriarty goes off on another chase to the tune of the Bee Gees’ ‘Staying Alive’, the first in the second series moves along at a cracking pace.

Good old Detective le Strade (Rupert Graves) is back, as is the tea drinking Mrs. Hudson. She is given a very bad shakedown by some pretty nasty CIA types. And, as we would expect Holmes and Watson come to her aid. Sherlock shakes him down by throwing him out of his window onto the rubbish bins below, several times too. However when Watson suggests a trip into the countryside to aid her recovery from this very traumatic event Sherlock scoffs at the idea “Mrs Hudson leave Baker Street? England would fall.” he says.

Once again co-creator Mark Gattis is just perfect as Holmes brother Mycroft. One touching scene has he and Sherlock wondering ‘if there is something wrong with us’ as they fail to have feelings after viewing a family grieving over a dead body. There are some simply lovely touches and many sublime moments, especially as the boys host a dysfunctional Christmas drinks ‘at home’ at 221B Baker Street, which is all decked out with decorations for the occasion.

Less is More - Irene Adler, naughty but nice

Sherlock with a Gun?

The script is truly dialogue delicious, Moffat has had so much fun weaving its many complexities. They quip constantly at each other and deliver some poignant phrases that make the time rapidly race by. One can clearly sense Moffat’s delight at bringing Conan Doyle’s characters into a contemporary world full of technology that allows him to innovate with such great style.

Sherlock waving a gun about and being ‘whipped’ by a naked Dominatrix Irene Adler is certainly a new take on the original. Watching what Moffat described as what is essentially an ‘unlove’ story unfold, you cannot help be fascinated by the intense relationship between Pulver and Cumberbatch as, like two predators, they circle each other looking for signs of weakness.

Bringing Sherlock into the present time has meant that Moffat and Gattis can, while not entirely humanising him, provide him with something Conan Doyle did not; pathos, a celebration of man’s heroic qualities in harmonious proportion. Pathos is such a good word, it describes our interior universe and yet implies something so much more than simple emotion: it refers to that inner universe one to which man is drawn attracted by the very nature of his own complexities and contradictions.

This first episode of Sherlock in the second series will certainly have you glued to the screen for the whole 90 minutes. You may be shocked, you will smile a lot, you will laugh out loud and perhaps even let a tear slide. It is a fantastic start and will have everyone counting down the days and hours until the second of three, ‘The Hounds of Baskerville’.

Those two Best Boys from Baker Street

Watch the Trailer and Interview with Steven Moffat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdNVoEldlc8

Sherlock – A Scandal in Belgravia

Director: Paul McGuigan
Writers: Steven Moffat
Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Lara Pulver, Mark Gattis, Andrew Scott and more

Sherlock Series 2
“A Scandal in Belgravia,” written by Steven Moffat. “The Hounds of Baskerville,” written by Mark Gatiss “The Reichenbach Fall,” written by Steve Thompson.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

Related posts:

1. Sherlock – Shrewd, Sexy, Savvy and very definitely New Age
2. Sherlock – Gattis Hallucinating The Hounds of Baskerville
3. Sherlock – For Watson, Just don’t be Dead after your Fall

Riveting reading, reading aloud to kids, cooking together, considered DVD watching and beautiful music listening experiences are all great can-do activities for the holiday season, as are long walks each day. All of these will be sure to keep you entertained and help recharge the body’s batteries,  refresh the spirit, the mind, the body and the soul.

2012 in Australia will be the National Year of Reading, promoting the positive benefits of literacy skills to the public at large. It is a collaborative project of Australia’s public libraries, government, community groups, media and commercial partners and the public. A staggering statistic revealed on their website is that 46% of Australians are unable to read a newspaper, follow a recipe or make sense of instructions of any kind. So the campaign next year is about promoting literacy, which we support wholeheartedly at The Culture Concept Circle.

Reading aloud to children is vital. The earlier children are exposed to the reading experience the greater the possibility they will enjoy it both at school and in life. Our list of children’s books contain choices from birth to young adult readers. All have been nominated, or have won awards through The Children’s Book Council of Australia. The family that cooks together seems to be a latest trend and it is good to know great chefs are producing cook books for families. We have included a few as well. Whether you read a book that is printed, or download ebooks to your computer, Kindle or iPad is not the issue. What is important is taking in the words.

For adults the Festive season is the time to enjoy some great escapist thrillers and entirely switch off. It is good to mix it up however and challenge ourselves, and our intellects. Reading current essays and journals, whose writers tackle sensitive issues about protecting the environment, ensuring sustainability and addressing societal concerns provides a balance. Pushing our own boundaries is good for all of us. Books suggested are available at www.bookoffers.com.au, an Australian on line searching tool you can use/bookmark to find the cheapest price on any book or ebook.  The DVD’s are available at the ABC Shop and Music choices can be downloaded from iTunes or purchased through www.fishrecords.com.au.

BOOKS 4 ADULTS

Notebooks by Betty Churcher

Discovering works of art with Betty Churcher is a positive, completely wonderful and transforming experience. Her favourite artists have that je ne sais quoi, or indescribable intangible quality that makes them both very attractive and enormously appealing, as they simulate the artists reality of their world in constant flux. Notebooks has proved so popular it has already been re-printed three times in 2011, the year it has been published.

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography – Walter Isaacson

An extraordinary book, which gives us a unique insight into the life and thinking of the man who single-handedly transformed and helped make the modern world.  From bestselling author Walter Isaacson the landmark biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is an amazing account of Jobs’ professional and personal life. Drawn from three years of exclusive and unprecedented interviews Isaacson conducted with Jobs, as well as extensive interviews with Jobs’ family members, key colleagues from Apple and its competitors, this is the definitive portrait of the greatest innovator of his generation

Women’s Stuff by Caz Cooke

The essential guide to life for women aged 18 to 108. With the best info, independent advice and great fun this is THE book every Australian woman truly needs if they want to know anything about everything from confidence, body image, eating, health, hormones, bosoms, hairy bits, love, heartbreak, to sex, mental health, wrinkle creams, cosmetic surgery, friends, sleep, home, false eyelashes and menopause. Best of all, there’s no fibs, fantasy or fakery. It also includes more than 2,000 illuminating, amazing, hilarious and heartbreaking quotes from real women who shared their own secrets and stories.

The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin

On last year’s list but one to revisit. This is an extraordinary tale, beautifully crafted and terrifically told of an epic quest undertaken by Canadian rock critic Eric Siblin. It is a great book about the search for a Baroque masterpiece, a score specifically written for the cello. Eric Siblin had an epiphany of sorts when he attended a recital of J S Bach’s six Cello Suites, falling completely under the spell of this classic musical masterpiece. He decided to go on his own journey to learn all about the works and their composer and to record his findings. By all accounts he certainly got more than he bargained for.

Smut by Alan Bennett

This contains two ‘unseemly stories’ that concern women in middle life; Mrs Donaldson, whom sex takes by surprise, and Mrs Forbes, who is not surprised at all. The stories are naughty, honest and very funny. British playwright Alan Bennett has been a leading dramatist since the 1960′s and this is the latest in his ‘small collection’ that last year included his other brilliant offering, The Uncommon Reader.

Hegarty on Advertising: Turning Intelligence into Magic

A book that no creative mind should be without – Hegarty on Advertising contains more than four decades of wisdom and insight from one of the world’s leading advertising men. The book is packed with anecdotes and insights, from advice on the elements of advertising, pitching and the effects of new technology, to the personal story of John Hegarty’s career from his early days at Saatchi and Saatchi and the global force that is Bartle Bogle Hegarty today.

Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn

Shifting alliances at home and abroad, ruthless accumulation of capital and endless court intrigues form the backdrop to a chilling and enticing portrait of Henry VII. He was the founder of the Tudor dynasty that created a centralised English state. Well written and well researched, the book helps us understand why Shakespeare decided to give this Henry a miss. It would have been difficult to prettify him. According to some English critics The Royal National Theatre should seek to remedy the omission rapidly: Winter King has a very contemporary feel.

The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

Deeply engaging Téa Obreht, the youngest of The New Yorker’s twenty best American fiction writers under forty, has spun a timeless novel, weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love that will establish her as one of the most vibrant, original authors of her generation. In a Balkan country mending from years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, arrives on a mission of mercy at an orphanage by the sea. By the time she and her lifelong friend Zóra begin to inoculate the children there, she feels age-old superstitions and secrets gathering everywhere around her.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Like many of the heroines of the Victorian novels she favors, Madeline Hanna, Brown University class of 1982 English major, must choose between men: the hungry wanderer Mitchell Grammaticus or the brilliant but troubled Leonard Bankhead. Madeline goes with the latter, sidelining her own intellectual pursuits in favor of riding a manic depressive’s roller-coaster through the dawn of semiotics, post-structuralism, identity politics, and psychopharmacology. A coming-of-age novel that’s as unapologetically erudite as it is funny, fun, and profound.

Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89 by Rodric Braithwaite

Written largely from material obtained from Soviet archives, this account of a winter nightmare explains why the Afghans hate being occupied and each chapter offers a warning to the Nato occupiers of today.

Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens

As a political, cultural, and literary critic, Christopher Hitchens really stands alone. This is demonstrated by his major collection of mostly recent essays and reviews, covering a range of topics, from America’s founding fathers to the state of the English language. You don’t always have to agree with this fearless author and polemicist to appreciate his erudite mind. Last year, his prolific career was derailed by a grim cancer diagnosis. His Vanity Fair essay on losing his “writer’s voice” as cancer attacked his vocal chords is a must. The anthology collects some of his best recent work. It is unapologetically candid, wryly humorous and keenly insightful, the essays examines such cultural icons as Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Franklin, Karl Marx, Thomas Jefferson, Ezra Pound, Abraham Lincoln, George Orwell, and even Harry Potter in the context of contemporary events, weaving history and present together as he reflects on the most pressing political and social issues of our time.

Death Comes To Pemberley by P.D. James

The year is 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons, the heir and the spare in the Pemberley nursery, Elizabeth’s beloved sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live within seventeen miles. The ordered and secure life of Pemberley seems unassailable, and Elizabeth’s happiness in her marriage is complete. But their peace is threatened and old sins and misunderstandings rekindled on the eve of the annual autumn ball. In a pitch-perfect recreation of the world of Pride and Prejudice, P.D. James elegantly fuses her lifelong passion for the work of Jane Austen with her talent for writing detective fiction. She weaves a compelling story, combining a sensitive insight into the happy but threatened marriage of the Darcy’s and the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted detective story.

Related posts:

1. Carolyn’s Reading Choices for the Holidays 2010/2011
2. The Culture Concept Circle – You Tube Channel
3. Festive Season Fancies – From Christmas Day to New Year 2012

My favourite book of 2011 stood head and shoulders above the rest, and there was many wonderful publications. Betty Churcher’s Notebooks are filled with the delightful and informative sketches that she has made and they appear alongside an image of the painting she’s describing. A former Director of the National Gallery of Australia (1990 – 1997) Betty Churcher (1931- ) holds an Order of Australia and is an Officer of the Order of Australia. What she has contributed to the world of art and culture in our country over her lifetime has been very well done.

A Masterpiece - Woman Bathing in a Stream, possibly Hendrickje Stoffels, by Rembrandt van Rijin (1606 - 1669)

Discovering works of art with Betty Churcher is a positive, completely wonderful and transforming experience. Her favourite artists have that je ne sais quoi, or indescribable intangible quality that makes them both very attractive and enormously appealing, as they simulate the artists reality of their world in constant flux. Notebooks has proved so popular it has already been re-printed three times in 2011, the year it has been published.  This divine publication is beautifully case-bound, its rugged handsome linen cover ensures that just holding it is a wondrous experience, which I personally respond to. The text is erudite, introspective, retrospective and, in so many ways puts life into perspective.

In the introduction Betty Churcher reflects on her life and times, those people who have shared it with her and, what they have meant to her. Being told she ‘tried too hard’ certainly rang a gong for me. You always enjoy something so much more when you emotionally plug into the experiences of the protagonist. But loving this book is so much more than all of that. It’s about a heightened sense of expectation and a true, eager delight as you turn each page. It is about the sense of being on the outside looking in at something completely rare and wonderful. It is about being the beneficiary of a unique insight so graciously formed. And, it is about a wealth of knowledge lovingly translated and encapsulated with meaningful words that will stay with you, just as the memories of the works she discusses will continue to aid her connection with them.

Purchase Notebooks

Betty Churcher: Photo by Andrew Meares

In 2003 following a stellar career Betty Churcher was told she was likely to lose her sight. By 2006 it had degenerated greatly and she lost the sight of one eye and the second was in trouble too. She took off on one last trip to sketch those works of art she had so loved and admired during her lifetime, because she couldn’t imagine a world in which she might never be able to see them again. By drawing their details she knew they would be indelibly etched into her memory. In the process, and by getting up close and personal, she discovered and recorded some of the special techniques that the artists had used in their creation.

Betty Churcher has surmounted most of the challenges thrown up at her since her very interesting childhood. This was when she discovered a capacity for drawing, one that would stand her career in a creative world in good stead. She left home at 21 and did not look back, only forward, as she went overseas in a passionate pursuit of art and life and to find her destiny. Notebooks is a highly intimate journey, one you feel privileged to be part of.

Betty was born pre-war at Brisbane and fled Brisbane for overseas until finally, she returned. She is a member of the Clan Cameron, as am I. We both admire and love St Paul’s passage from The Holy Bible Corinthians 1:13…”If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing… love never fails”.

Betty no doubt saw Reg Livermore on stage in person chained to a kitchen sink in Betty Blockbuster, an affectionate title she inherited during her career because of her love of ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions and movies. I just love her keen eye and meticulous attention to detail; her lively observations, which are so lovingly recorded. They provide a unique insight into the colour preferences, style techniques and thought provoking processes of their artists.

I like the way she confesses that in some cases, she has revisited her favourite works again and again. This is a temptation I also find hard to resist when possible, because it allows another encounter so that yet another aspect of the work might shine through and strike you down.

The Death of Actaeon by Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)

After you take on board all that she does have to say the notion occurs to you that next time you encounter something special you will be all the more determined to linger longer and look at it with completely fresh eyes.

Her visit to the National Gallery at London was particularly poignant, being able to access its great works alone ‘after hours’ must have been a powerful experience. Of all the galleries I have visited this remains my all time favourite, as all the works seem to have been embraced by a loving hand, in the way they have been chosen and displayed. There is such a mood of permanence about this place, which probably has as much to do with its style of architecture as it managing to not be bombed out of existence during World War II.

Betty Churcher reminds us of how, during the London blitz the works were removed to the safety underground of a Welsh mine, not Canada as some had proposed. Winston Churchill told the then director Kenneth Clark to ‘Bury them in caves or in cellars, but not a picture shall leave these islands‘. One can hear him say it loud and clear with that fabulous commanding voice that he had. He was so feisty and fierce about defending the ancient Isle of Albion to the end. For him to remove its most famous treasures would have been a defeat.

Feeling ‘starved’ from not being able to access regular doses of their art, Londoners demanded they have an opportunity to see at least one now and then. And so the “Picture of the Month” program was born, ensuring that at least one great work was sent home to London each month from the mine. What a wonderful message: one precious piece of past human history helping people of the present to be inspired to fight on.

Las Meninas by Velazquez - defining the art of illusion - there is so much going on here at times it is completely dizzying from the man whose 'managed to make black look blacker than black'

The Death of Actaeon by one of my fav painters Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) is a wonderful comment on the Greek myth, that has Artemis (Diana to the Romans) chasing the mortal hunter. He unwittingly looked upon her beauty, while she was bathing naked in a stream deep in the forest. She had him torn to death by her dogs who think he’s a stag as she has transformed him. Painted when Titian was in his 80′s this work was unfinished, according to some, but it is still full of intent, and startling in the dark mood it manages to purvey of how the dastardly deed was done.

Betty Churcher’s Notebooks are ‘heavy’ with intention, the illustrations reproduced gorgeously, and the personal notations and sketches truly delicious. It is an entirely engaging read and every single page is an adventure in the evolution of art, design and style. It is also about being a voyeur, seeking pleasure on the sea of art by trespassing silently into a world where the art of pleasure becomes a serious business.

I especially responded to her thoughts on the amazing work of Spanish artist Diego Rodríguez de Silva Y Velázquez and his most mysterious painting, Las Meninas in Madrid. Considered a masterpiece, it continues to raise many questions that will probably never be answered.

Then there is his imposing portrait of Pope Innocent X painted in 1650, that was described in 1966 by English artist Francis Bacon as ‘one of the greatest paintings in the world’.

In her Notebooks Betty Churcher travels from shadow to illumination as she completely susses out the subject matter of her most admired works brilliantly, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses and capturing their very essence with her wonderful prose.

Her descriptive passages are truly delightful; one fine example about Rembrandt von Rijn says “In his sagging flesh and ageing skin he can record the many disappointments and idignities that he has been obliged to stomach over the years – but the set of the mouth suggests that he regrets nothing”.

As I suspect she doesn’t either.

Notebooks by Betty (Elizabeth) Ann Churcher, AO (née Cameron) born 11 January 1931 – )
Available through www.bookoffers.com.au

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011

NB: Betty Churcher dedicated Notebooks to her grandchildren, who are sure to gain an appreciation for art, and to learn what art is, from their grandmother.

Related posts:

1. Reading, TV and Music Choices for Festive Season 2011/2012
2. Favourite Books – Andrea Palladio, The Architect in his Time
3. Book Reviews: Abydos & Herculaneum – Understanding Antiquity